Editorial: With Nixon, political trust eroded in US

Posted:
08/07/2014 10:28:59 PM MDT

Once Americans respected their politicians even if they didn't agree with them.

But the country lost a great deal of that innocence 40 years ago, when President Richard Nixon, under investigation for his role in the Watergate break-in cover-up, resigned in disgrace on Aug. 9, 1974.

Before the June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters in Washington, D.C., at the Watergate Hotel, few Americans would have believed their president, or any U.S. president, would have been involved in illegal activity.

Of course that was a naive belief, and in the years since the pendulum has swung far in the other direction.

Today, many people seem ready to believe the worst of any politician with whom they disagree.

The anniversary of the only presidential resignation in U.S. history offers a chance to look back at that difficult time.

Nixon had chosen Gerald Ford as his vice president after Spiro Agnew resigned in disgrace, and Ford turned out to be a good leader to calm fears after America was suddenly left with no leader elected by the people.

And almost forgotten in his disgrace, Nixon left a legacy of work toward world peace, ending the Vietnam War and opening relations between the United States and China.

In an interview in 1974 with the Washington Post, Nixon commented on his foreign affairs work and said the United States still needed to work to build peace in the Mideast, and to end the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. He said the two superpowers "must live together in cooperation rather than in confrontation," words that may ring true today as well.

Though he hoped his legacy would focus on his efforts to work on world peace, he realized the Watergate scandal and his resignation would be remembered first.

Nixon himself said after his resignation, "I hope no president ever resigns under any circumstances."

In the Washington Post interview, Nixon himself cited a statement by Theodore Roosevelt about the man "in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood" and who, if he fails "at least fails while daring greatly."

In today's world, where politics has almost become blood sport, we would do well to remember the shock and turmoil the country went through in 1974.

Criminal wrongdoing by presidents or other political leaders should not be tolerated, but the removal of a president from office is a profoundly serious act that all Americans should hope is never needed again.